Screen printing of stretchable electrodes for large area LED matrix

As electronic devices are indispensable in many aspects of our lives today, their integration with unconventional surfaces is increasingly essential. Electronic devices which maintain their electrical properties upon stretching are desirable for various wearable applications. Stretchable devices demonstrated are conventionally fabricated using semiconductor processing techniques. In this study, we demonstrate stretchable electrodes, which are basic components of electrical circuits, using screen printing, a large area printing method. It provides a low cost and scalable method to fabricate large area stretchable devices. Despite the larger width and thickness of the electrodes which increases the stiffness of the material, stretchability beyond 40% is demonstrated, which is suitable for certain wearable applications. The stretchable electrodes are integrated with light emitting diodes (LEDs) to demonstrate a stretchable LED matrix. The large area LED matrices exhibit variable stretchability, depending on the LED areal coverage. This technique is expected to be applicable in the fabrication of other stretchable, large area, and more complex electronic systems.